This text consists of two notebooks that the Nobel laureate kept during a short trip to the U.S. in 1946 and during a longer stay in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile in 1949periods of stress and hectic public appearances, when he was tired, nervous, ill and vulnerable. If these journals were not by Camus, they might be regarded as ""meaningless bits and pieces'' (his own description) that do not merit publication. But 27 years after his death, almost anything from his pen possesses value for students of French literature. Since many of these fragments later turned up in his published writings, their major interest stems from the fact that they show how Camus passed from rough notes to a finished work. The introduction was written by the author's longtime editor at Gallimard. (July 15)